Home

Hello Everyone, sorry that we have not blogged in a few days. We have been very busy getting adjusted to being home. Our plane flight home was great, Gus slept most of the way and when he wasn't sleeping he was playing peek a boo with people behind us. People offered to switch seats with us before we even asked, God is so good to us. We got home about an hour late due to ice in Detroit. All three sets of grandparents, Uncle Kyle, Aunt Courtney and Uncle Lee met us at the airport. Gus did great with his welcome home party. Lots of smiles.

Now we are working on getting settled in. Gus loves all of his toys, loves the bath tub, is crawling all over the house, loves Morgan (but needs to be reminded to us gentle hands), is eating great, is not sleeping great but that's okay we will get there, and welcomes guests like the host with the most. Beyond the lack of sleep and trying to get Gus' days and nights to American times we are all doing fantastic.

Tomorrow we have our first doctor appointment and then we plan on spending the day at home. Our visit to the great grandma's and Mars Hill was a little much yesterday and we all need a day home. I will hopefully post some new pics tomorrow and also post an update on what the doctor said.

We have to tell all of you that we for sure felt the power of prayer on our entire trip. Thank you for all of the support, love and prayers. It is wonderful to be surrounded by people who love us and Gus so much. Have a fabulous day.

Finally ours!

We have had an amazing day. We picked Gus up around 10:00 am. We spent some time having him say good bye to his caregivers. Then we bundled him up in his bear suit (thanks Jodi) and his puppy hat (thanks Mary and Abby) and took a Taxi back to our hotel. Within a couple of minutes of being at our hotel the entire place was turned upside down with toys, diapers, and clothes. We let Gus explore a little and get a grip on his surroundings. Then we changed into our swim suits and took him for his first swim. He is a little fish, fits in with our family great. He loves the water and threw his first temper tantrum when it was time to get out. We then had a bath, he liked that as well and again tears when we got out. He had some lunch, very good eater and then settled down for an hour and a half nap, on the floor of course. He woke up happy, we played with toys some more ate a banana and got to know each other some more. Then Gus ate dinner and we took a short walk outside to look at the lights of the city and the Christmas lights. Now we are back at the hotel playing with toys and bonding. He is all smiles, easily consolable when sad, and loves to giggle. He loves to play with his tongue as well.

He does have a little bit of a runny nose right now so please pray that it does not turn into anything worse or make his ears sore on the plane. We will be home soon!

DMZ

We had another busy day in Korea. When we woke up this morning we were both just wishing this day to pass quickly in order to make it Friday and get Gus. We scheduled a tour of DMZ in order to keep us busy. It was a good tour we learned a lot more about North and South Korea. We got to see many different things but we didn't get a lot of time at any of the things, they kind of rush you through everything. It was interesting and we are glad we did it but it was not our most enjoyable tourist activity here in Seoul.

We also went to amethyst factory/jewlery store. Amethysts are found in Korea and pretty inexpensive because they are so local. I bought myself an early christmas present of a amethyst necklace, it is very simple and was very reasonable in price.

Then we went to a Korean restaurant and had bibophim, a warm pot full of rice, korean veggies, some spices, and a sunny side up egg on top. Very delicious. We ended our meal with a cup of korean coffee, it is found in most restaurants and it is about ten cents, it is like a shot of cappucino, sweet, warm and yummy.

Our tour guide, Sophie dropped us off at Itaewon which is a very modern, westernized shopping area. We found the last gift we had been looking for there. We took the subway back to our hotel, we are getting pretty good at the subway and it is so cheap and safe.

Now we are packing up stuff so that we can just concentrate on Gus tomorrow. It is crazy to pack up all of the Gus' unworn clothes. It's okay though, we are trying to make room for the extra stuff we are coming home with. Everything is coming together nicely. We are planning on laying low tonight. I am going to go workout and then soak in the hot tub. Then we will probably catch a quick bite to eat and attempt to get a good nights sleep. We don't know when we will get another uninterrupted night of sleep, Gus still wakes up at 2:00am for a feeding.

Have a fantastic Thursday, Friday is coming soon!

City Tour Day

Wow did we have a busy day today. We woke up and had some time to talk to my mom on facebook which was nice. Then we enjoyed a quick breakfast and headed to Holt to meet our volunteer tour guide for the day. Jihyeon Oh was our tour guide, she is trying to get to know English better so helping us was in turn helping her. She was an absolute delight and her English was fantastic. We started out our day with a tour of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Wow it was beautiful and we learned so much about old Korean culture. We also got to see in the distance the Blue House which is equivalent to the White House where their president lives. All of this was in the middle of city.

After the palace tour it was time to shop! I was pretty excited to buy some gifts. The shopping area is called Insadong and it reminds me of a flea market but with small indoor stores instead of all being outside. Everything is pretty reasonably priced. It has a lot of souvenir items. Jason and I bought some gifts for people and then purchased come authentic Korean items for our home. We bought: a wall hanging that says in Korean: My Happy Home, a beautiful wooden chopstick set that serves six people, a small picture that has ducks flying home in it which symbolizes family finally coming together or returning home (we are hoping to display this in our home with our names written in Korean), and we bought some wonderful Korean sweets to bring home and have everyone try.

We wanted to buy a traditional hanbok for each of us and Gus. Insadong had some but they were very pricy. With the help of our tour guide we were able to find a place that sold them at a much cheaper price. We went over to a different market which was much more flea market style. This had everything from fresh fish, to bedding, to fabric and other souvenirs. We came across a little stand selling hanbok and between the owner of the shop and Jihyeon Oh we were able to pick one out for me, very feminine and colorful, one for Gus to fit him in a couple of years (we should get his from his first birthday party and we are hoping that will still fit him now), and one for Jason which matches both Gus' and mine. It was a great deal where we got it but still a splurge for something that we will not wear very often. We both felt it was well worth it and that we would treasure them forever, much like we do our dutch costumes :)

While out shopping we were able to eat another traditional Korean meal, it was very tasty and gave us a chance to warm up from being outside in the cold all day.

When we got back to the hotel around 4:00 we were both pretty tired and cold, we soaked in the hot tub, tried to learn a little Korean with a book we picked up, and took a little nap. We ended our day by going across the street to a little sandwich shop for dinner. Although we have been enjoying the Korean food it was nice to taste something a little more normal for our palettes. We took it back to our hotel room for a late dinner.

We are winding down and thinking about hitting the hay soon. Tomorrow morning we are going on a tour of the DMZ. We leave at 8:00am and return to our hotel around 2:30pm, it will be a lot of history, walking and being outside in the cold again. We also hope to get over to the world cup stadium. Can you guess who planned our day for tomorrow?

We are both ready for it to be Friday when we get to take Gus with us. We do have one prayer request: our plane tickets for the ride home do not have us sitting together on any of our flights, we are fairly close but not next to each other. Please pray that people will have compassion on us and be willing to switch seats to get us together and on an aisle so we can walk with Gus if we need to. God has been so great to us throughout this trip and we feel that has so much to do with all of prayer support we have back home. Thank you. You all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Best Day Ever!

We finally met Gus today. We started our day with a 6:30 wake-up call. We anxiously got ready, ate some breakfast, and rode the subway over to Holt. We met DJ the overseas social worker at Holt. We then traveled about an hour to Ilsan. The drive was very pretty, mountains surround the city. When we got to Ilsan we met the superviser and Molly Holt. Then we took a short walk across campus to where Gus lives. As soon as we entered the door, there he was in the arms of his house mother. She instantly handed him to me. He smiled and cuddled into my arms. Holding him and kissing was indescribable. I handed him to Jason and Jason lifted him high in the air and we saw an even bigger smile. His face just lights up when he smiles. After Jason hugged him he reached back out for me and I took him back in my arms and we embraced in a family hug, our new family felt complete. We then took him into the play room and showed him all of the fun toys we had brought him. He loved the bear puppet, elephant puppet and the touchy feel book. Whenever he gets a new toy he looks at it and then pulls it up over his head, its very cute. We were able to play and interact with him. He sat in both of our laps, cuddled with us and then started getting very tired. He sleeps on the floor so we started getting into his sleep position. Then he flipped onto his back and started crying, his whole face scrunched up. I quickly scooped him up. I held him to me kissed his face and patted his back. He was asleep in my arms within about five minutes. He was so comfortable he started snoring! What a sweetie. We layed him down on his blanket and said good bye it was so hard to leave him but at least we know that come Friday at 10:00 am we will be able to take him with us.

We got a chance to talk with his house mother for a while and get a lot of our questions answered. He eats three times a day a rice porridge. He also eats smashed bananas and yogurt. He has a sweet tooth and his favorite food is Strawberry yoplait yogurt. He is not feeding himself yet. He drinks soy milk and rice powder mixed in water, both out of a straw sippy cup during the day and out of bottle at night before bed and then around 2:00 am. He sleeps from 9:00pm-7:00am with the feeding at 2:00am. He is still taking two naps one from 9:00-10:30 and one from 2:00-4:00pm. He likes to sleep and would sleep more if they let him but they keep him on a strict schedule. He gets hot while he sleeps and will crawl around on the floor trying to find the coolest place. When he is tired he gets fussy and will hit head on the floor, the same when he gets hungry. We are assuming that is how he gets his bumps on his head. His favorite things are the taggy balnket I made for him, a toy drum, thomas the train dvd's and cars that you can pull back and watch go. He can manuever a little slide all by himself including crawling up the wrong way. He is an absolute joy everyone just adores him.

The rest of our day was full of meeting people and seeing places. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch with Molly Holt at a traditional Korean barbeque wow the food was fabulous. We sat on the floor, ate with chopsticks, and left our shoes in the entry way. Molly's parents were the original founders of Holt and now she lives on Ilsan's campus and helps run the ministry. She is very passionate about what she does and cares very much about Gus. After lunch we said good bye to Ilsan and headed to the Holt orphanage where Gus used to live. The entire staff was elated to see us, they miss Gus and just adore him. They gave us some pictures from when he was younger including one from his first birthday party. Everyone was so friendly. DJ was able to translate our conversations.

Later we went to bookstore to get a couple of kids books in Korean for Gus. We bought a Thomas the Train book for the airplane and then we bought the giving tree in Korean. The bookstore was a lot like a barnes and noble just filled with Korean books.

This evening DJ picked us up at our hotel and took us out to dinner. We had a wonderful time getting to know her better. She is a wonderful woman. She speaks wonderful English. She lived in Ada for a little while so it was fun to name places that she remembered from Michigan and tell her about where we live because she recognized so much of it. She then gave us a little car tour of Seoul.

We are now back at the Hotel, trying to wind down from our amazing day. Jason is in the living room watching Korean soccer and I am planning on trying to get some pictures up on facebook.

Tomorrow we will be going on city tour, then we have Thursday to ourselves and pick up Gus at Holt on Friday morning at 10:00 am. Things are going wonderful! Check out facebook for the pictures that is where I will hopefully be able to post them.

First full day in Korea

We have had a great day in Korea. We started out with an amazing breakfast at our hotel. The food was fantastic. Then we talked with DJ at Holt and found out that we would be meeting Gus at 10:30 on Tuesday morning at Ilsan. Since we had the whole day we decided to explore Seoul. Jason took the lead he is much better at maps than me especially when they are in Korean. Our first stop was the subway to get our passes for tomorrow morning, then we decided to go visit a palace right down the street, well that was a bust because it wasn't open. So we went back to the map and found a sunny spot to stand in. While doing that we met a very helpful couple who must have known we were tourists. They encouraged us to go see Cheonggyecheon river, this is a reclaimed natural area that has turned from pretty much a sewer into a beautiful stream that runs for about 3 km with a wonderful path all along it. It was so pretty, we could even stone hop across it. While exploring that we came across a tourism organization. One week a month they have traditional korean activities for free. We had our names, including Gus', written in Korean calligraphy and then we were able to try on the traditional hanbok. I was a princess and Jason was a military man. Very cool we hope we will have time to take Gus back there and have him try on an outfit. We went back to the hotel and got our gifts ready for tomorrow and relaxed a little before our dinner excursion. We went to a traditional Korean music and dance dinner theater tonight. It was in a different part of the city but they picked us up which was nice. We enjoyed a wonderful buffet of korean food including crab legs, octopus, mandarin oranges and duck. Some of the food was wonderful and some of it not quite what we are used to. We were very adventrous and tried many things we had never had before. I will say the desserts here are nothing like at home, I miss my chocolate. The show was fabulous. The costumes were beautiful, the instruments were unique, and the dancing was intricate and synchronized to perfection. All around the evening was a lot of fun.

We are both feeling the effects of a lot of travel, some dizziness and very tired. We decided to hit the hay a little early tonight in order to be our best for when we meet the Gus man tomorrow. We will have some time with him but we don't know how much and then we will get more information on other times we will either see him or be able to take him with us. As of right now we will not have complete custody until Friday at 2:30. Mamma and Daddy are struggling with that a little and hope that we can maybe change that if we are able to. We will keep you all updated. As you read this on Monday morning know that when I am writing it, it is Monday night. Have a great Monday! ours was wonderful.

Meeting Gus time

We just talked to Holt and we will be meeting Gus at 10:30 tomorrow morning at Ilsan. We are so excited. We still are not for sure as to when we get to take him with us. We will be going on the Holt City tour on Wednesday. Today we hope to get acclimated with the city, check out a museum and hopefully see a traditional Korean dinner show. Very exciting. We will fill you in on what we really did later.

Good Morning!

Everything is still going great. We slept about 6 hours and then were ready to get going with our day. The breakfast was fantastic, really yummy and lots of things to try. We are ready to face the day. Jason is on the phone with holt right now and it sounds like we will be meeting Gus tomorrow. Today we will hopefully do some sight seeing, the DMZ is closed today so we will not be going there. I would like to get going and explore. I guess Ilsan is having a good bye party for Gus tonight. We are not sure if we will be meeting him at Holt or Ilsan, we will call back in a couple of hours and get more info then. In the meantime we are going to check out the rest of the hotel and get some subway passes for the week. We will continue to keep you updated. This little momma can't stop smiling!

Arrived in Korea

We finally made it to Korea!! All the travels went super smooth. A big thank you to nana and papa for waking up early with us and bringing us to GR. We actually arrived in Korea at 930 pm (korean standard time), which was about 730 am (est) . The greatest thing about the long flight was meeting people who had been to Korea and are currently living there. They gave us great advice about getting taxis to our hotel, when and where to exchange money, etc. However, when we finally got through customs and immigration it was all for naught. Holt had hired a driver for us and was waiting with a sign with our name on it. AWESOME!!! We had been told it would be a miracle if there was going to be someone there. GOD IS AWESOME! MIRACLES ARE GREAT! MIRACLES IN KOREA ARE EVEN COOLER (from this perspective currently). A big thank you also to Belinda and all those at Bethany and Tempo Travel agency for getting us to this point! We got to the hotel at about 1030 or 11pm. unpacked (Emily did this) and Jason attempted to get computer up and running. Jason was semi-successful in this endeavor, the only set back was getting this here blog spot not to be in Korean. It finally worked after getting 6 hours of sleep and patience being restored. We are looking forward to the day, dawn is breaking currently. Emily is still sleeping and I am getting hungry. Perhaps its time to wander around Seoul and find some good food to prepare for the day.

Time to Sleep?

Well here we are the night before we leave. Our bags are packed, emotions are high, God's faithful words of knowing the plans he has for us keep ringing in my head, plans to prosper us and give us a future as a family. Wow, the lessons we have learned in the past ten almost eleven months. God's love has taken us through each bump, each waiting day and the craziness of today. Hopefully we will both be able to sleep a little tonight before we begin our journey tomorrow. We will be departing the house at 4:45 am if any of you are up say a quick prayer that I will be calm and hear God's voice loud and clear, I did not realize until today that I am a little scared to travel internationally. Tomorrow starts a new journey for the Perton family and we are ready, we think. We will keep this updated. Thanks for all of the loving comments and excitement, it is so appreciated.

travel day and times

So, we are leaving on a flight bright and early Saturday morning. First stop is Detroit then Tokyo then arrive in Seoul about 9:30 pm Sunday night, which is 8:30 am our time. Crazy! We are staying at the Frasier Palace in downtown Seoul. It is very nice, it is apartment style so we will be able to cook some of our own meals. Plus it has a kiddy pool and play area for the Jason(maybe Gus will like it too.) We will be back home on Saturday the 19th at 4:30 pm arriving in GR. All three sets of grandparents will be eagerly waiting for their new grandsons arrival. We are bringing the computer and will be updating the blog as frequently as we are able to. We are not yet sure when we will actually be meeting Gus.

Current prayer requests: safe travel, bonding with Gus, Emily's crazy emotions, Jason's lack of emotion, Morgan's good behavior, and a magic house cleaner to make the house just what Emily wants for Gus when we get home.

TRAVEL CALL!

Today at about 1:00 we received a call from Belinda inviting us to travel to get Gus!!!! We are elated, to say the least. We will for sure have him by Christmas. We are both in shock, we just keep wandering around with our cell phones thinking what do we do now. We are currently waiting to hear back from Tempo with some options of when we will travel. As soon as we hear anything we will update you more. We should meet our precious little son within four days, YEA!!!!

Please thank God with us for this wonderful news!

Embassy Medical Report

Here is the current scoop. Gus has had his embassy medical appointment. The paperwork was faxed to Bethany at GR today but it came in Fuzzy. The person who has to fax it will not be back in the office until Wednesday to refax it. Bethany in GR should get it on Wednesday. Jason and I will hopefully be able to travel to GR on Wednesday to sign it. They will then expedite it back to Korea. Then we will get a travel call. Let's pray this all goes quickly and that we get that invitation to travel right after they receieve the paperwork. We are so thankful for this news and so close to thanksgiving. We are also so thankful to hear how much Gus has grown, up to 22 lbs and 30 inches. That he is sitting on his own, standing on his own, walking with furniture, saying ummamama and dadadada, eating rice fruit and other mashed foods, and has six teeth. We are also thankful for all of your prayers and support. HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVNG!

Still Waiting

We just got an update on "operation get Gus home." Gus' Visa was issued on October 23 and his Visa apporval is at the embassy. The next step is for Gus to get a medical exam and interview at the embassy. Once he has that they will email us a class B Letter which we will have to sign off on saying that we understand the health concerns that Gus has. Then they will send that back to Korea and we will get an invitiation to travel shortly after that. So...how long? I ask, you ask, we all ask. There are never any clear cut answers with that question when it comes to adoption. They are hoping we travel within the next month and hopefully sooner. Please pray that we have something to be very thankful for for thanksgiving this year. Somehow, someway we would like Gus in our arms by Thanksgiving day. Also pray that they get him to get his medical exam ASAP! Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

Ministry Approval

We just got word from our case worker that we have officially received ministry approval. That means Korea has approved us and we are now just waiting to get the call to go and get our little Gus and bring him home for good. The current delay is the lovely H1N1 flu. There have been a few cases at Ilsan where Gus is living and that is causing a little bit of a hold up. At this time we do not know when we will be able to travel, we are hoping very soon. If you could please keep this process in your prayers and pray that Gus does not get the flu. If he gets the H1N1 it will be longer until we can go get him and it will more than likely cause him to get pnuemonia again. Thank you so much for your continued prayers. It is simply a matter of time before we all get to meet this little boy who has already touched our lives in so many ways.

We are so READY!

Gus' room is officially finished. It looks great, Jason drew an amazing tree on the wall and everything else fell in place around the tree. His clothes and dishes are washed, I had a shower and got lots of lovely gifts. All of his toys are broken in thanks to all of the kids at our house on Friday night. We are very ready to get that travel call. Waiting is hard. As we walk past his room and dream of rocking him in the chair, tucking him into to bed and playing with the toys with him; I have been given a great image of what God must feel. He has prepared a room for each of us and is waiting to have us home in heaven. The Bible talks about Christ adopting us, what a beautiful image. Through salvation we have been adopted into a new family. Although this waiting time has been difficult and continues to challenge our patience, the spiritual growth that has come through it has been amazing. God's Timing is Perfect! Please continue to pray that we will receive that call soon, that we will hear back from the many grants that we applied for with good news, and that Gus remains healthy. Thanks for your continued support and love.

Getting the Room Ready

We are officially getting Gus' room ready. Jason drew an amazing tree on the wall. I will hopefully get to painting it this weekend. We painted half of the crib so far. We decided to pain the crib cream. It looks great we just have to wait for it to dry and then we can paint the other side. Teh rocking chair is in the room. We have his name painted and we just need to put it up on the wall. It is looking great! We are still in need of a changing pad, curtains, diaper pail, and a rug and then the room will look so cozy and ready! It is really fun to get stuff put together. We also have his diaper bag packed for the trip. The only thing missing in it right now is diapers, go figure. We cannot believe that it is finally this close.

Current prayer requests, that Korea and Holt will get the paperwork done and we will get the call soon, that we will hear back from the grants we applied for with good news, that Gus will remain healthy, and that we will feel ready emotionally as well as materially. Thanks for all of your support. We will keep you posted.

It's Here!

On Wednesday we received our immigration paperwork and the paperwork for Gus' Visa. We are so excited, a process that usually take 2-3 months took only 20 days. Thank you God for hearing our prayers and answering them. Now Korea works on their end and we wait for the call that says we can travel. Thank you so much for your continued prayers.

PICTURES GALORE!

We are so blessed over the weekend we received 15 new pictures of our little Gus. He received all of the items that we sent him and they sent us pictures of him with each item. There are pictures of him chewing on his sippy cup, snuggling with his new blankie, and reading his new book. Yes that's right our son is a genius he is already reading at 17 months old. (ok so maybe he just looks like he is reading) We are just so happy that he liked the things that we sent and that he seemed so happy and healthy in these pictures after the news of being in the hospital and then two sad pictures in a row.

Poor Baby

We just got word today that Gus has recently spent some time in the hopsital. We do not have all of the logistics of how long or for exactly what. We do know that he received some steroid treatments for breathing. He is back at Ilsan now and doing better. Please pray for his health right now that he remains healthy and he can stay out of the hospital. We did get another picture as well. He looks so grown up, it looks like it was mug shot from the hospital. Again not his typical smmiling face but not as grumpy as last time either. We are still waiting for final word from Korea and immigration. Please pray that we will hear something soon and be able to travel in the near future. I really don't want our little one to ever have to stay in the hospital again without his Mommy and Daddy.

Sending a Gift

We have been given the ok to send Gus a little gift today. We are not sending much just a little book of pictures of Jason and I, a board book, a sippy cup and a tag blanket that I made for him. We are so excited to give him something and begin to correspond with the caregivers who are caring for him.

We also received good news that immigration is on the look out for all of our stuff in order to expedite us. That is fantastic. We are still waiting to hear final word from Korea at this time. We are still hoping to be able to travel in late October or early November and have Gus home for at least a month or two before the Christmas craziness.

Please continue to pray for the grants that are out there, Gus' health and adjustment to Ilsan, and our patience during this waiting time. Thank you so much for your continued support.

Fingerptints Check!

YEA!!!! They let us go through and get our fingerprints done on Friday. So we are on track and happy. Thank you for all of your prayers.

Please Pray!

We are going to attempt something tomorrow in order to speed up this process and we thought it might be helpful to have some prayer support going into it. Here is the scoop, we received a finger print appointment for September 9 which is not too terribly bad. However, we would like it to be a little sooner. So our plan is to go in tomorrow with...a picture of Gus, some of Gus' medical paperwork, and then beg them to please for the sake of our little guy fingerprint us tomorrow instead. We are planning on going at 9:00am right when they open, please if you think of it surround us with prayer for them to have compassion on our situation and grant our request. Thank you so much.

Grumpy Gus

A couple of things to report on. First of all, we finished all of the grant applications today and they are on their way to mailbox! That is good news for us, we can rest a little easier now. We also turned in all of our acceptance paperwork today. We are waiting on a couple of things: approval from the Korean Gov't, a letter from immigration with a finger print date, and a letter from immigration telling us whether they have decided to expedite our case or not.

On a different note. We received a new picture of Gus yesterday. He was a Grumpy Gus in his picture. It is hard to tell if he is sad, mad, sick, or just tired. Either way it is much different than our usual smiling pictures that we have received in the past. It is very hard for me to look at it and know I can't do anything to make him smile. I just want to scoop him up and kiss him until he smiles. In the picture he has shorts and tank top on so we can see his arms and legs. They do not look as scrawny as we thought they would which is a good sign. He looks like he has been growing, we at least know his hair has been growing (it is a little out of control).

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We will keep you all updated.

Expediting?

Here are exact words from our caseoworker today: "Alison(someone at corporate) has asked that you prepare and submit the acceptance documents for little Gus already so that we can expedite them!"

YEA!!!! Happy day, more paperwork but we can't wait. This paperwork we will do all night if it gets us our Gus faster!

Please pray for clarity of mind and understanding of everything they are asking of us so that this all goes smoothly. Also, please thank God with us for this wonderful news!

Paperwork on it's Way

It is a happy day at the Perton house! We received and signed our home study today. We had everything ready to send to Immigration and sent that out certified mail today. Once we add some pictures to the home study we can send it to corporate and then they can send it to Korea. We handed in one grant application today, have one ready to be mailed tomorrow and I will be working on one tonight. We are so excited to keep moving forward, it feels so good to get some of this paperwork on it's way.

Current prayer requests: that immigration would consider expediting our forms in order to get Gus here quicker because of his need for medical care, that Gus will keep adjusting well to his new home and that the physical therapy everday will help him gain core strength(Jason thinks he just needs some baby pilates), and that we will qualify for some of the grants in order to reduce our cost and save money for Gus' upcoming medical expenses. Also please thank God for His continued hand in this process, we feel His presence all of the time.

Ilsan a new home

Just a little new news on Gus. First of all we will be meeting with our caseworker to sign the homestudy and send it in on Tuesday morning. The other information we receieved is that Gus was recently moved from the Holt orphanage to a place called Ilsan. Our current understanding of Ilsan is that it is a home for people with disabilities of all different ages. The nice part is that Gus will be getting Physical therpay everyday now. He was getting physical therapy twice a week. Hopefully this will help him build some core strength for sitting up, crawling and eventually walking. Our understanding is that they thought the tranisition would go well because Gus has no stranger anxiety, Mr. social likes meeting new people. Hopefully he will like meeting his Mommy and Daddy.

Current prayer requests: that the transition goes smoothly, that the increased physical therpay increases his body strength, that the paperwork goes through smoothly and quickly, and then as always patience.

July Well Baby

We got a well baby report on Gus today. He is now 16 months old. He weighs 17 lbs still under 3% and is 30 inches long which has moved him up to under 10%. His nutrition is at moderate. He has his top two front teeth and bottom two center teeth. He is still at a 9 month social development and 7 month gross and fine motor development. Not crawling yet or sitting up on his own for any length any of time. We are very happy with the report. Please continue to pray for the paperwork process, no more delays, for Gus' health and development and our patience.

Current News

I know it has been a while since I have written. We have been on a stand still waiting for the extra piece of paperwork. I got the call this morning that I can go and pick it up today. YEA!! That is good news. Now we will be able to get it in Bethany's hands and see if it is enough. Hopefully we will know more soon. In the meantime, please continue to pray for our little one and this process. Pray that this document gives Korea and Bethany the answers they need to determine if this adoption is a good fit for little Gus. We are so ready to know if he will truly be ours forever! Thanks for all of your continued support.

Please Pray

Hmmm how do I explain what has happened with our adoption process in the past week. I guess I will just type and hopefully it will make sense. We had all of our paperwork ready to be handed in on Monday including our immigration paperwork, two grant applications, and our finished homestudy to send to Korea. We were waiting on one piece of information that Korea is requiring. What we got with that piece of information was a request for some more information. Korea is very thourough and wants the best parents possible for their children. We think that is wonderful and are more than willing to show them that we will be good parents for Gus. So...it just means it might take us a little longer. Please pray that this step will go quickly and that Korea will see our hearts for this little boy and know that we would be good parents for him.

On a happier note, Gus is sitting up for two seconds and then falling over, Way Cute! He also has his first tooth, one of his bottom front teeth. All good news hopefully he will keep progressing and keep growing.

Please keep praying for this process all of your prayers are being heard, thank you! Our family of three (and a half - Morgan) appreciates all of your support.

Gus got a Haircut

I am so excited, we got some new pictures of Gus. He looks great! He got a haircut and doesn't have as much of that baby look anymore. He is already starting to look like a big boy. Someone from Bethany went to Korea and was able to meet Gus and take some pictures. She says that he is really sweet but sickly. She said that he eats well, but doesn't gain much weight. She also mentioned that he adores the woman at the orphange caring for him. HMMM a flirt must get that from his Daddy. We are waiting for the home study to be complete and then we take the next step with the US and Korean government. We also can start applying for grants. Current prayer requests: Gus will continue to gain weight and strength and stay healthy, that the paperwork trail will go smoothly and quickly, that we will get enough grants to help cover the cost, and then of course patience (we are ready to meet him and we think he is ready to meet us as well).

Safe to Travel!

We had our last home study visit at our house yesterday. It went really well, I cleaned like crazy even though our social worker told us we didn't have to. The meeting in general was a little over whelming we went over a lot of what is to come paperwork and that is a lot. Worth it, but a lot. The great news though, Gus' doctors in Korea said that he would be fine for travel. We were very concerned that it would be detramental to his health to travel and if that was the case we didn't want to do anything to make him sicker. This was a huge relief for us and another reminder that God has a plan with this. The next step is filling out some paperwork and getting fingerprinted. We also have to check with the health department to get updated on any shots we need. We do not know for sure any time frame yet but it could be as soon as four months that we get to meet and bring home our little Gus. Please continue to pray for Gus' health, for the paperwork process that it would go smoothly and quickly and continued patience for Jason and I. Thank you for all of your support.

May Well Baby

We have some good news on Gus! It's so nice to actually have good news. His well baby check-up showed that he has gained a pound and a half in the past month. Thank you for all of your prayers. He is still in the less than 3% for his age but we will take any growth that we can get. He also grew a 1/2 of a centimeter. He has a new scar on his chest from the lung biopsy. The Down Syndrome world calls these battle scars, so Gus has his first. If we find heart surgery will help him in the future he might have more battle scars to come. He is attempting to creep which is exciting. He is now at a 6 month gross motor development stage and a 9 month social development stage. So all in all for going through a lung biopsy and a short stay in the hospital he had a good month.

He is feeling our prayers! Please continue to pray for the process, we have our last home study visit a week from Friday; pray that he keeps growing; pray that North and South Korea keep some form of peace right now; and finally pray for patience for Jason and I we want to meet our little boy so badly.

Lung Biopsy

Not a lot of new news on little Gus at this time. We are still going through the homestudy process. Our caseworker, Belinda is fantastic and has helped us through so much already. We will meet with her again on Friday for more homestudy stuff. We did get a short medical report on Gus' lung biopsy. It didn't have a lot of information but is says that he has Interestital Lung Disease. I am not fully sure what that means. After researching it online I am still somewhat confused. It can be caused from several different things my guess is that Gus has this as a result of the pulmonary hypertension/heart defect. It has different severities and the report did not specify how severe Gus' case is. It can go as far as having scarring in the lungs. This is not something that can be cured but it can be helped with medication. Right now he is on a steroid to help. Maybe the steroid will help our little guy grow too. I am hoping to still get some more in depth information but I am not sure if that will happen. Please continue to pray that he stays healthy, grows, and that Bethany and South Korea will have a clear sense of what is best for him. Thanks for your prayers!

1st homestudy meeting

We started our homestudy officially yesterday. The meeting went really well. It was nice to go over some more detail information. We still don't have a time line and we are still trying to find a time to meet with some different people at Bethany to talk about their concerns with Gus' health. We asked for some more detailed information on his recent lung biopsy so hopefully we will be getting that soon. All around it was a good meeting and gave Jason and I a lot to think and pray about again. Continue to pray that their will be clear cut answers for little Gus and what is best for him.

Latest Korea Dr. Report

First of all thank you all so much for your prayers and comments. It means a lot to us to have so much support. We got a report from Korea today. Every month we get a doctor check-up report. Little Gus has gained two ounces and one cm in length. He has not picked up any new skills but he is at a 5 month gross motor development, 6 month fine motor development and 8 month social development. All that to say he is a happy little boy. He did go the hospital on April 15 for a lung bioposy but we have not seen the results of the biopsy, they are checking for lung disease. Thanks for the support.

Thought I better do this

So, after having been going through the adoption process for our little Gus for over three months now I thought hmmm maybe I should blog about it. That way when people want an update they can check the blog. Sometimes things change quickly and sometimes things are really slow.

So here is the background that has brought us to where we are now three months later. In late January, early February Jason and I felt a tug on our hearts to pursue adoption of a little one with Down Syndrome. We had always talked about this but after a worship service at Providence we felt God telling us to look now. So I contacted Bethany Chirsitian Services. I told them that we were interested in adopting a child with down syndrome between the ages of birth and two and that we did not care gender or if the child was from the US or international. Well they were sending me pictures of all these kiddos with down syndrome by the end of the day.

Jason and I started going through profiles on kids, filling out our initial application and making friends quickly with Stephanie the intake person at Bethany, whom we love. Within about a month we kept feeling a tug to look back at the picture and profile of a little boy who was 11 months old from Korea. We asked for more information on him and then we asked about Korea's three year marriage requirement. Stephanie checked on many things for us and called back a few days later with wonderful news. Korea was willing to waive the three year marriage requirement because he had Down Syndrome, they were also going to reduce the country fees.

And so our journey began. We decided at that point not to give him an American name because there was still so much more to do. So our next step was to fill out the massive long 32 essay question long application with several other sources of inf0rmation on us. This was a very good experience as it gave Jason and I a chance to talk some things through and think more about what it will look like when we are parents.

Soon after making the decision to pursue Gus we had a doctor at spectrum look at all of his paperwork to give us some more information on his heart condition and pulmonary hypertension. While at work one day I received a phone call from Sarah a case worker at Bethany. She explained Dr, Lacina's report to me. The report brought tears to my eyes as I was informed that little Gus was much sicker than we first thought. His heart defect and pulmonary hypertension put him at risk for a shortened life span, frequent pneumonia, and lack of strength and energy.

With this news Jason and I went to our knees. We prayed and cried and prayed some more. We decided to take our time listening to God about whether we should continue to pursue Gus, who we already felt a strong attachment to or look for a different child. During this time our families were a strong support as they prayed with us, brought out great questions to ask Bethany and other doctors. We also had a lot of support from friends who were also praying and giving us names of pediatricians we could talk to.

Well after about two weeks of praying Jason and I both got an overwhelming sense from God that we were supposed to continue to process of pursuing the adoption of Gus. On the same day we received a brand new picture of Gus . We know that God is with us through this and will guide our every step. Our prayer has been and continues to be that we will continue to go forward until a door is completely closed.

So now that we had made a decision we decided we needed to have a name for this little one that had already touched our lives so much. So on a wonderful spring walk at Hippie Tower with Morgan running free we talked names. We decided that he needed a name that meant strength with all of his health problems. We also decided he needed a name that was four or less letters to write (teacher coming out in me). So Augustus it was, and we will call him Gus. Three days later we celebrated Gus' first birthday with a small cake, a sign, a card and stuffed elephant. We look forward to the day when Gus will see the pictures of us celebrating his birthday even though he was half way around the world.

So where are we now, well Gus already has a pedicatrician, Dr. Shook who is wonderful. He also has a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Lacina who has been great at telling us the facts and giving us best and worst case scenarios. We are starting our homestudy with Bethany on Wednesday. And Gus, is happily waiting for his Mommy and Daddy to come get him.

I will do my best to keep this updated with what is new. Biggest prayer concerns right now: 1) that Gus stays healthy, no swine flu or any other yucky stuff. 2) that homestudy goes well. 3) that Gus gains weight, our 14 lb little peanut needs to grow.